RSS Feeds
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,
but because of the people who don't do anything about it
Occupation magazine - Activism
Home page
  
back
 
Print
  
Send To friend
Attribution of Jerusalem as Israeli capital scrubbed from World Expo 2015 website
BDS Italy
bdsitalia@gmail.com
http://bdsitalia.org/index.php/english-menu/1294-expo-pr-eng
False attribution of Jerusalem as Israeli capital scrubbed from World Expo 2015
website
Following the press release by BDS Italy, the designation of Jerusalem as
Israel`s capital has been removed from the website for the World Expo 2015 that
will take place in Milan next year. (See before and after images)
Last week, with the publication of country profile pages for Expo participants,
BDS Italy condemned this fraudulent attribution, pointing out that Israel is the
only country in the world that recognizes Jerusalem as its capital.
According to UN Resolution 181 of 1947, Jerusalem was established as a corpus
separatum governed by a special international regime. In 1967, in blatant
violation of international law, Israel unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem
following the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Consequently,
embassies in Israel, including those of Italy and the European Union, are
located in the Tel Aviv area.
Expo 2015, which in `granting` Jerusalem with the status of capital of Israel
underwrote Israel`s illegal acquisition of territory by force, has now chosen to
remove the field `capital` from all country profiles for world fair participants
in an attempt to obfuscate the illegal context in which Israel operates. In
addition, Expo 2015`s institutional partners, the Italian Ministry of the
Economy, the Lombardy Region and the City and Province of Milan, have a legal
obligation not to recognize and to take measures to put an end to Israeli
violations of international law, which go well beyond the occupation of East
Jerusalem.
In just the past few days, Israel, under the pretense of a manhunt for the three
missing settlers, has killed 6 Palestinians, wounded dozens, arrested over 400
without charge, closed entire cities and areas, raided thousands of homes and
organizations and bombed Gaza in an act of collective punishment. All this as
Palestinian prisoners begin their 61st day of hunger strikes in protest of
Israel`s policy of `administrative detention`, which sees them held without
charge in Israeli prisons.
And while Expo 2015 offers Israel a global showcase to promote itself as a
country at the forefront in agriculture research and water resource management,
the facts tell a different story, one of land grabs and water theft.
According to the Israeli organization Kerem Navot, since 1997 Israeli settlement
agriculture in the West Bank has increased in area by 35 per cent, exceeding by
50 percent the built up area in settlements and represents a new form of land
grabs and occupation requiring fewer resources than housing construction.
Palestinian agricultural land, instead, has diminished by one third. In 2012, a
UN report revealed that only one in four Palestinian families is food secure due
to the occupation and restrictions on movement of people and goods imposed by
Israel.
As for the `management` of water resources, Israel illegally extracts water from
Palestinian aquifers, destroys Palestinian water infrastructure and denies
access to Palestinian water sources, creating a system of water apartheid with
policies that Amnesty International has defined as a means for forcing
Palestinians to leave their land.
Expo 2015, which has already `distinguished` itself for rampant speculation and
corruption, as well as the hypocritical appropriation of terms such as
`sustainable development` and claiming to help `feed the planet`, is now lending
itself to an image campaign aimed at normalizing the brutal reality that Israel
is able to maintain thanks to the impunity afforded it by world governments and
international institutions. With the failure of the international community to
hold Israel to account, the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement is
working to end to this impunity and guarantee Palestinian rights.
BDS Italia
bdsitalia@gmail.com
bdsitalia.org
BDS Italia is a movement supporting boycott, divestment and sanctions against
Israel, comprised of associations and groups throughout Italy who endorse the
2005 call from Palestinian civil society and promote BDS campaigns and
initiatives locally and nationally.
Links to the latest articles in this section
Refusing the war! Demonstration today, Thur. Apris 24, at 7.30 pm, Habima Square, Tel Aviv
Refusing the war! Demonstration today, Thur. Apris 24, at 7.30 pm, Habima Square, Tel Aviv
Saturday night protests: No to Netanyahu`s war!